


Marauders Advent Calendar: Day 1

by chillsoya



Series: The Marauders Advent Calendar [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, But Not Much, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Fluff, Cutesy, I'll add tags as I go along, Kind of angsty, Muggle post is too slow, Multi, One Shot, Post Hogwarts AU, Remus didn't go to Hogwarts AU, So they floo their letters instead, The Lupins don't have an owl, jily, mainly just fluff, updated daily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 17:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12893448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillsoya/pseuds/chillsoya
Summary: Day 1The floo doesn't understand Hope's Welsh accent and sends her letter to Remus to the wrong address. Sirius decides to join the Lupins for Christmas, because he has no where else to be. Remus is incredibly awkward.





	Marauders Advent Calendar: Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is Day 1 of my Marauders Advent series. I'm going to update daily (this one comes late thanks to terrible internet connection).

Sirius doesn’t celebrate Christmas. He doesn’t know if what he had before he was kicked out at 16 could be called celebrating, either, but even so.

The Potters do celebrate the holidays with their usual intensity; Euphemia and Fleamont tag team the kitchen between drams. It’s a hectic day of loud music, too much liquor and burnt roast potatoes. Somehow it turns out okay each time, though.

Sirius always declined each time, though. The reason isn’t concrete even to him, but the idea of sitting down with his surrogate family to eat, drink and be merry is decidedly discomfiting.

It’s definitely not because he misses how it used to be, though. Christmas with the Blacks was cold in its formality despite the roaring fireplace and piled dishes of food. Sirius was there mainly to serve the rest of the family their drinks and food like a bloody house elf. Kreacher had an easier time of it than Sirius and Regulus, really.

At 23, Sirius lives with James, Lily and Harry unofficially. He could probably move out and be independent and adult at this point, but he doesn’t want to.

The festive season is regrettably underway once more. Sirius greeted it with a double shot of whiskey followed by a white Russian cocktail, agreeing to look after Harry several nights so the happy couple could attend Christmas nights out and dates. It’s the least he could do, really, as he’s refused to go back to James’s parents for Christmas once more.

Of course, James and Lily both took turns at trying to convince him to come along. James cajoled him in his usual brotherly way, half begging and half demanding. Euphemia and Fleamont sent Sirius his own Christmas card asking him to please come along; Sirius expected it was Fleamont’s idea to send it as a howler. Lily asked Sirius with Harry sat in her lap so that they could both give him their best puppy dog eyes.

It took a lot of willpower to say no so many times, but Sirius managed it partly out of stubbornness.

And so the festivities continued. Sirius bought everyone Christmas presents, even one for Regulus who would probably not appreciate it. He botched the wrapping and used up several rolls of sellotape because Lily insisted that doing it with sticking charms was cheating.

On December 20th, Lily and James packed up their Christmas jumpers and a sack of presents and went to the oversized fireplace.

“Are you sure you won’t come, Sirius? Mum won’t mind that you haven’t given her warning.” Sirius rolled his eyes and ushered James and Lily under the maw of the ornate mantle, proffering the pot of floo powder.  
“I’m absolutely sure, James. It’s not like I can’t get there myself if I change my mind - which I definitely won’t by the way.”

With that, the small family go to join Euphemia and Fleamont at the Potter mansion. Sirius is glad to have the time to himself; he’d wanted to jump off the Trafalgar Christmas tree when Last Christmas was played for the 10th time on the radio.

A few days of calm came and went. Sirius avoided Lily’s radio for fear of more festive music and chucked a sheet over the tree so he didn’t have to look at its garish decorations. He stubbornly wore the least Christmassy jumpers he could against the chill that seeped in the window despite the heating charms he cast frequently.

On the 23rd at 7pm, Sirius was lounging on the sofa with a tumbler of whiskey, feeling sorry for himself. After all, wasn’t it unfair that he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the season everyone else relished so much? All because of his incredibly shitty family who had made Christmas yet another event of abject misery. A holiday he dreaded because he had to come home from school for 3 weeks and put up with his snotty mother and aggressive father.

His pride wouldn’t allow him to go to the Potters’ at this point, though. It was a bit late on, his room wouldn’t be set up quite right which would distress Euphemia. It was better for everyone if he stayed put.

It might be nice if one day he could come to terms with his unhappy relationship with Christmas and maybe enjoy it for once.

The floo flared, startling Sirius to drop his glass with a breathed a curse. A letter, hurriedly folded up, shot out with a flurry of soot and stray snowflakes already beginning to melt into the rug. The parchment was cheap, certainly not something the Potters’ kept sitting around. Curiosity piqued, Sirius kicked the spilt drink to one side before casting a hurried ‘scourgify’ on it before it could stain.

The letter was warm in his hand; he hadn’t realised he was cold. Opening it up, he found it addressed to someone called Remus. Frowning, Sirius squinted at the slanted handwriting he wasn’t familiar with.

Remus darling

Your dad really misses you. Come on, come home for Christmas; we’re making a huge gingerbread castle. Remember we used to do that? I know you’re busy with studying but it would be ever so nice to see you. Let us know!

Mum

Sirius found himself smiling, fingering the ripped edge of the parchment and wondering about this family who had sent the letter to the wrong address. The return address was printed tinily on the back as an afterthought.

Gingerbread had always been Sirius’s favourite festive snack. Maybe…

On a whim, he grabbed his parchment and scribbled a reply.

Hello!

You sent this to the wrong address, no Remus here. However, I’d be more than happy to come help with castle construction if you’ll have me; I’ve no other place to be.

Let me know - also you might want to try resending your letter. I’ll attach it.

Sirius

This was a weird thing to do, even by Sirius’s standards. But he didn’t have much to lose - at worst he’d be totally ignored and spend Christmas on his own as he’d planned. So he sent the letter back through the floo and tried not to think about it.

He had a reply within the hour.

Hello Sirius!

Sorry about that, must have said the wrong number or something. We’d love to have you, though - no one should spend Christmas on their own! And that’s what mums are for, making too much food, isn’t it? You’ll be a great help. Come by whenever you like.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Hope Lupin

Well, that went well.

-

It was early Christmas morning, around 7am or so. Sirius wondered if it was too early to turn up at Hope’s house, in case they would all be sleeping, but he had been up pacing most of the night away.

He had made a mistake. He shouldn’t have replied like that. He should have just let them know they’d sent the letter to the wrong address and let that be that. He had no idea who these people were, after all. They could be horrible.

“God dammit,” he hissed, palming his hair back from his face. He didn’t know what to wear, so he had went for his black skinnies and a Christmas jumper James bought him last year, a size or so too big. His hair is in a low ponytail. He’s got his shoes on and Lily sent him a plate of Euphemia’s famed boozy biscuits; little does she know that they’re not for him.

Sirius was not sorted into Gryffindor to pussy out of going to a stranger’s house for Christmas, though. So he grabbed the floo powder and tossed it with venom, feeling himself being sucked into the vortex of the floo network.

He landed at the other side with a heavy thump, soot in his eyebrows, nearly dropping his plate of biscuits. It took him a moment to regain his senses and when he did, he was greeted with the sight of an incredibly good looking young man.

He was ridiculously tall, gangly in his massive Christmas jumper, with unruly curls. Sirius stared and the man stared back. And then…  
“Um… Hello?”

Sirius cleared his throat and stepped out onto the rug that he had now made even more sooty; it must have already been due to all the Christmas cards lining the wall in a garland. Firstly he wiped his hand off on his jeans, then he held it out for a handshake.

“‘Lo. I’m Sirius,” he grinned, barely self conscious despite the fact that turning up at a stranger’s house ought to make him just that. “You’ve some tea just… here,” he pointed out, gesturing to his chin. The man flushed, eyes wide, and wiped away the dribble of tea in questionwith his sleeve.  
“Um, thanks. I’m Remus,” he replied, sounding like it might be a question.  
“Your mum got your letter to you, then!”

Just as things were about to become even more awkward, a willowy woman charged into the room with tinsel wrapping around her unruly blonde curls. She too was ridiculously tall, maybe an inch or so taller than Sirius much to his chagrin, and for a minute she didn’t seem to notice the newcomer.

When she did, her entire face lit up and she all but jumped on Sirius with a wide grin.  
“You must be Sirius! So glad you could make it, and you brought biscuits? Oh love, you didn’t have to!” she rambled, taking the plate from Sirius’s hands after he nearly dropped it once more. Putting it down on the side table, she looked at him with a wide smile and tilted her head - she looked a lot like the young man to their left, who watched them with ever growing bewilderment. “I’m Hope, love, and this is Remus, my little boy. Well, he’s not so little anymore. Look, Remus, we’ve a visitor! And isn’t he handsome!” she chirped, grasping Sirius’s cheek between thumb and forefinger. This entire situation was spiralling out of control. Remus’s honey eyes flitted between them, eyebrows almost to his hairline.  
“Um… Yes?” he offered. Hope laughed and spun on her heel, bustling away from them.  
“Must check the roast potatoes. Remus, introduce Sirius to your dad.”

Sirius followed Remus from the room, looking around him at the tiny house. Remus’s head almost touched the low rafters, which were decorated with a huge amount of colour changing tinsel; even the Potters weren’t this zealous about Christmas.

They made their way out of the house and into a frost coated garden attached to a mostly empty field, the ice shining in the low winter sun. At this point, Sirius felt for his packet of cigarettes and glanced about them.  
“Um, d’you mind?” he asked, suddenly self conscious. Remus watched him with a bland expression before smirking, holding his hand out.  
“As long as you share, and don’t tell my mum.”

They were obviously going to get along.

Sitting on the side of a de-wheeled wagon that smelled sweetly of rotten wood, they smoked slowly and watched birds flit between the trees lining the sides of the field.

“Do you guys own that land?” Sirius asked curiously, gesturing to the expanse in front of them. Remus snorted, shaking his head with his gaze on his swinging feet.  
“Nah, no one owns that. The land’s pretty much useless - overworked,” he explained, flicking some ash into the grass. Sirius hummed, grasping for conversation. “How’d you get here, then?”  
“Floo,” Sirius answered as if it ought to be obvious. Remus gave him a look.  
“No, like how’d you get invited?”  
“Oh,” because yes, that ought to have been obvious. “Your mum sent your letter to mine by accident. Didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I asked if I could drop by too.”

Remus watched him for a long moment before grinning.  
“You’ve no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

That seemed to be quite true. Lyall, Remus’s father, was surprisingly portly considering Hope and Remus both being so tall. He seemed generally well meaning if not a little too interested in other people’s business, by the series of questions he presented Sirius with and the pointed looks he gave Remus after each. Once they had parted, Remus seemed totally flustered but wouldn’t tell Sirius why no matter how much he pestered.

What was surprising was the lack of awkwardness from Hope and Lyall, considering a stranger was hanging about their house. Remus himself had taken a bit longer to warm up and still seemed pretty reserved. Sirius caught him looking at him from the side of his eye a few times, but the emotions behind it were difficult to decode.

Constructing the gingerbread castle was a task even with magic, Hope giving Sirius and Remus directions from where she sat on the counter with a cuppa. The two boys stumbled over each other to place the gumdrops and peppermints in the correct places, Hope giving very specific pointers for each. As much as it was stressful, though, it was hilarious. Remus seemed exasperated with his mum’s pedantics but Sirius soon became just as invested. Every time Remus went to cast a spell, Sirius would hold up his hand and stop him.

“What?!” Remus snapped, peeved. Sirius’s face was screwed up in concentration as he levitated a square of chocolate into place amongst the other chocolate roof tiles.  
“You gotta be patient,” Sirius informed him as seriously as he could manage. “You can’t just chuck the peppermints on wherever you want. There’s a pattern.”

Remus looked like he wanted to outright roll his eyes to the back of his head, but did as he was told much to Hope’s glee. Happy that Sirius had this under control, she left the room to find her favourite Christmas jumper.

“You’re just trying to show me up,” grumbled Remus, a fleck of icing on his cheek. Sirius grinned and shrugged.  
“Yeah, maybe. What’re you gonna do about it?” He’d become more bold once he had settled in. Remus was nice to look at and hilarious to piss off, so flirting was to be expected. Remus took on a thoughtful look, tilting his head.  
“Maybe I’ll draw a big dick on the roof with the white chocolate,” Remus threatened, mischief glinting in his eyes. Horrified, Sirius swatted at him, dusting the front of his jumper with icing sugar.  
“Don’t you bloody dare, you little shit!”

The gingerbread castle came along nicely, though Remus did purposely put some gumdrops on in the wrong places. Lyall came in from the shed when it was time for dinner and Hope shepherded the three men to the table, which she had made Remus set.

Weirdly enough, Sirius didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Christmas, which he had been avoiding taking any part in for most of a decade, was actually pretty fun with the Lupins. Lyall was tossing out dad jokes in full force, Hope was piling an impossible amount of food onto everyone’s plates, Remus was watching Sirius again whenever he thought he wasn’t looking... 

“I’m so glad you came along, Sirius,” Hope piped up as she scooped even more roast potatoes onto his plate despite his protests. “Remus wasn’t even going to show up, but I bet he’s glad he did, now.”

Remus’s face turned a dark red under Sirius’s smirk. When he began to wiggle his eyebrows at him, Remus kicked his shin under the table causing him to spill gravy right down his jumper.

“Remus, you little-” Sirius began before stopping himself from swearing very loudly at the table. Clearing his throat, he met Remus’s smug gaze challengingly. “Can I borrow a jumper from you? Mine seems to be a bit… Runny.”

Remus’s room was tiny, so tiny that he could cross it in 3 strides. Sirius still seemed totally enamoured with it, though, standing in the centre of it while Remus looked through his drawers for a jumper.

“You like Spandau Ballet?” Sirius asked, incredulous. Remus flushed, standing up with a giant jumper clutched to his chest.  
“Problem, mate?” he asked defensively, stuffing the jumper into Sirius’s arms.  
“No. Just didn’t peg you for it,” Sirius shrugged, tugging his jumper over his head without further ado.

Surely this wouldn’t be a big deal. Remus could deal with partial nudity, right?

Remus watched him with an unreadable expression. His eyes flitted from Sirius’s face to his thin chest and stomach, ridiculously pale. He wanted to say something funny like, ‘do you ever go outside?’ but the words got stuck in his mouth.

Sirius was bloody beautiful.

And then he pulled the jumper over his head, messing up his hair, and Remus forced himself to look away because a moment ago he had Rem salivating and now he has him internally screeching over how bloody cute he is.

“Um, your hair…” Remus pointed out awkwardly, barely able to make eye contact. Sirius blinked at him, confused. “It’s kind of…”

A look of understanding came over Sirius and he laughed, undoing his ponytail to let his hair hang loose around his shoulders. How many layers of adorable, beautiful, gorgeous could one man have?!

“Come out for a cigarette?” Sirius offered, gesturing with his head to the door. Remus gulped, glancing from Sirius’s face to the floor.  
“Yeah.”

Outside, Sirius was finally able to appreciate how much time must have went into doing the house up like this. The walls were draped with string lights twinkling in every colour imaginable, changing hues in a broad ripple. There was fake snow charmed around the house so that it wouldn’t melt. While Remus and Sirius were making the gingerbread castle, Lyall had charmed the old wagon to look like a sleigh decked with bells and red paintwork. It was beautiful magic, enough to impress even Sirius who was himself incredibly adept in charmwork.

“It looks great,” Sirius mumbled, gesturing to the house that looked like something straight out of a fairytale. Remus smiled, secretly pleased, and shrugged.  
“Yeah, they really like to pull out all the stops for it.”  
“D’you not enjoy it as much?” Sirius asked, tilting his head curiously. He remembered Hope’s imploring letter.  
“I do, yeah, I just… Get busy, is all.”  
“With studying.”  
“How’d you know?”  
“Your mum’s letter,” Sirius reminded him with a snort. Remus laughed, shaking his head. They puffed a billow of smoke out in unison.  
“Oh. Yeah, I didn’t go to Hogwarts or anything, mum was ill at that point. So I go to Muggle university just now, in Cardiff.”  
“That’s pretty cool.”

“What do you do?”  
“Um, not much. Play babysitter for my mate James. I’m thinking of training to be an Auror.”  
“Impressive.”  
“Cheers.”

It was all too quiet between them. They were grasping for conversation now, wishing they had something of substance to say. Remus swallowed harshly, eyes on the glistening fake snow.

“Got a girlfriend?”

Sirius looked at him for a long moment, blank faced. Just as Remus became almost unbearably uncomfortable, he started to laugh.

“What?” Remus insisted, startled and exasperated. Sirius beat himself on the chest to keep from descending into a coughing fit.

“I’m… What? A girlfriend?” Sirius asked as if totally perplexed. Remus watched him with furrowed brows and it dawned on Sirius that maybe he’s oblivious to this kind of stuff, or doesn’t approve. Sobered, he released a long drag. “I’m…. Very, very gay, Remus,” he informed Rem with as much seriousness as he could muster.

Remus sighed in what sounded like relief.

“Oh,” he huffed, leaning back against the cool stone of the house. “Well, that’s good, ‘cuz I am too.”

Sirius gave him a sly look from the corner of his eye, quirking a brow.  
“That’s good, is it?” he probed, smirking. Remus scowled back and angled his body away from Sirius, as if trying to ignore him.  
“Stuff it, Sirius,” he grumbled, chucking the butt of his cigarette away.  
“Don’t wanna. You got a crush, Luuuupin?”

Remus rounded on him with a glare, arms crossed over his chest petulantly. Sirius blinked up at him, surprised and maybe a little intimidated. He’s about to take it back to try and avoid an argument, but Remus silenced him with a roll of his eyes and a shrug.

“Maybe I do. He’s a right prat, though.”

Sirius gawped up at him, hardly believing his ears.

“Well, that’s good. Cuz I’ve a crush, but I really want to tip gravy down his front to see how he bloody likes it.”  
“You probably just want him to take his top off.”  
“Maybe I do!”  
“Terrible, Sirius. I expected you to have more class.”  
“I expected you to be better at pretending not to stare.”  
“I expected you to be less of an arse.”  
“Well I expected you to… Bloody… Be nice!”

Remus smirked at him, totally smug.

“Aw, does ickle Sirius want the attention?”  
“Sod off, Lupin,” he grumbled, averting his gaze. Remus hooked a finger under his chin, forcing him to meet his gaze.  
“S’my house, you big brat.”  
“Yeah well, I contributed more to the Christmas cheer with my superior architecture. So there!”

 

They bicker on like that from some time, Sirius gravitating as close to Remus as he dares. Once they’re both finished with play-fighting and smoking, they go back inside.

Hope and Lyall sit in their matching armchairs, fingers entwined, giving Remus a knowing look when the two boys come in. Remus squirmed under their stares, aware of how close he was standing to Sirius.

“Sirius, would you like to stay the night darling?” Hope asked, trying to mask her smirk. “We put on a really good Boxing Day meal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Based off this: http://mashable.com/2017/11/26/grandma-accidental-text-thanksgiving-jamal-hinton-tradition/#l5eR1_78Dsq5


End file.
